Memory for previously viewed radiographs and the effect of prior knowledge of memory task.

RATIONALE AND OBJECTIVES

To investigate the effect of being forewarned that they would be asked to identify repeated images on radiologists' recognition of previously interpreted versus new chest radiographs.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Thirteen radiologists viewed 60 posterior-anterior chest radiographs, 31 with and 29 without nodules, in two sets of 40 images each. Eight radiologists were forewarned and five radiologists were not forewarned of the memory task. Twenty images in each of the two sets were unique to each set and 20 images occurred in both sets. The readers indicated the presence or absence of any nodules during both readings, and in the second reading session they also indicated whether they thought each image had also occurred in the first reading.

RESULTS

There was no significant difference in recognition memory performance between forewarned and not-forewarned readers. Overall accuracy in distinguishing previously-viewed from new images was 60.7%.

CONCLUSIONS

Being forewarned of the memory task did not improve recognition memory.